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Off-Ramp ® is a lively weekly look at Southern California through the eyes and ears of radio veteran John Rabe. News, arts, home, life... covering everything that makes life here exciting, enjoyable, and interesting.

In December, one of L.A.’s biggest arson fires gutted the huge DaVinci apartment complex. Mayor Garcetti said the fire caused up to $90m damage, and another official said, it "could have been a lot worse. Wind change, different atmospheric conditions, it could have been a $200m fire."

The torching of the DaVinci was the biggest unsolved arson downtown since the LA Public Library burned on April 29, 1986. That’s a day Off-Ramp contributor Patt Morrison remembers well, and I spoke with her about it on the west steps of the library.